Ron Dewar is a jazz
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
player in the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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area. He has toured and recorded with many well-known musicians, including
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Clark Terry
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator.
He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...
,
Sarah Vaughan, and
Louis Bellson
Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer ...
. In the 1970s, Dewar was the leader of the traditional jazz band The
Memphis Nighthawks. Memphis Nighthawks recordings include the albums
Jazz Lips on
Delmark Records
Delmark Records is an American jazz and blues independent record label. It was founded in 1958 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when then owner, and founder, Bob Koester released a record ...
and
Live at the Stabilizer.
Career
Dewar began his career at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...
in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ron was a featured soloist the U of I Big Band led by
John Garvey which travelled to the USSR on a State Department sponsored tour. Musical associations from that time include trumpeter/composer Jim Knaap, drummers Charlie Brougham and Joel Spencer, bassist Kelly Sill, pianist/composer
Jim McNeely
Jim McNeely (born May 18, 1949) is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and faculty.
Biography
Jim McNeely was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and moved to New York City in 19 ...
, cornetist Guy Senese,
Cecil,
Ron Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe A ...
, and
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater (née Denise Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National ...
, pianists
Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin (born April 10, 1938) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. Since 1963, he has recorded more than 100 compositions and was a first-place winner in the ...
and Donny Heitler, trumpeter Art Davis, drummer George Marsh, saxophonist Ed Petersen and many more.
In the 1970s, while playing with traditional jazz players in Chicago such as Doc Kittrell (trumpet) and Roy Rubenstein (trombone), Ron developed a passion for the music of New Orleans. He studied the New Orleans clarinetists Omer Simeon, Johnny Dodds, Barney Bigard and Sydney Bechet and incorporated their styles in his playing, sometimes even playing an older style Albert system clarinet. He delved deeply in the recordings of Jelly Roll Morton and the early King Oliver sides with Louis Armstrong on second cornet. He arranged many of these tunes for the Memphis Nighthawks and inspired many other players to pursue this music.
In the eighties, Ron and drummer Phil Gratteau, joined Brazilian artists Breno and Neusa Sauer and Paulinho Garcia in a Chicago group called Made in Brazil. In 1984 they recorded "Tudo Joia" for Pausa records, a blend of contemporary bossa and samba with a jazz flavor.
Dewar may also be heard as soloist on recordings such as "
In a Mellow Tone "In a Mellow Tone", also known as "In a Mellotone", is a 1939 jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, with lyrics written by Milt Gabler. The song was based on the 1917 standard "Rose Room" by Art Hickman and Harry Williams, which Ellington himse ...
" with the
Thomas Gunther Trio
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the Ap ...
and as an ensemble member on recordings by modern composer-conductor
Salvatore Martirano
Salvatore Giovanni Martirano (January 12, 1927 – November 17, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Born in Yonkers, New York, he taught for many years at the University of Illinois. He also worked in electronic music ...
. He is currently active as player and teacher in the Chicago area.
External links
Ron Dewar Info SiteSalvatore Martriano "O, O, O, O That Shakespeherian Rag"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewar, Ron
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American jazz tenor saxophonists
American male saxophonists
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
21st-century American saxophonists
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians